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ITEC-Ohio Press Conference

Columbus, OH -- January 7, 2000 -- Ohio has become a national technology development leader in testing and evaluating emerging Internet technologies.

Columbus, OH -- January 7, 2000 -- Ohio has become a national technology development leader in testing and evaluating emerging Internet technologies. ITEC-Ohio (Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center) is led by OSC Networking, a division of OSC, and a consortium of Ohio universities and corporate partners. Today, Ohio's technology and education leadership will demonstrate the capabilities of ITEC-Ohio by performing a live surgical procedure at the OSU Medical Center and demonstrating a collaborative consultation with cancer patient data using high-performance network tools. Dr. Steven Steinberg of the OSU Division of General Surgery will perform a live procedure while Dr. Scott Melvin, Director of the OSU Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery will moderate questions from an audience at the Rhodes State Office Tower. Ohio legislators, members of the Board of Regents, Governor Taft's Office, Internet2 officials and the media will observe and interact. "Our goal is to teach other physicians while we continue to provide the highest level of patient care," said Dr. Melvin.

In addition to the live surgery, researchers from OSU and OSC will demonstrate advanced applications that provide for synchronous collaboration between remote locations that allow physicians to view and discuss three dimensional reconstructions of information from cancer patients. Don Stredney, Senior Research Scientist at OSC, will demonstrate the unique capability to interactively manipulate three-dimensional data, as opposed to passively witnessing stored images. "Internet2 provides a high-availability network to support the demands of advanced research applications being developed by OSU and OSC. We are continuing to develop new tools for complex applications for a wide range of users," Stredney said.

The ITEC-Ohio consortium will help develop technologies that will greatly improve many aspects of our lives by providing the means for distance learning, tele-medicine, massive digital libraries, distributed computing, virtual laboratories, and much more. The increase in remote collaboration among doctors alone will foster the rapid adoption of new medical procedures throughout the country and world. ITEC-Ohio will be the communications technology testing center for tomorrow's Internet.

ITEC-Ohio partners include the Air Force Institute of Technology, Case Western reserve, Kent State University, OSC Networking, Ohio Learning Network, OhioLINK, The Ohio State University, OSC, Ohio University, University of Akron, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton and Wright State University, as well as corporate partners Qwest and Battelle. ITEC was selected as part of a national effort to develop advanced networking technologies that will be used by Internet2, the next generation Internet.

Project Abilene is the production network of Internet2, and is the highest performance wide area network in the world. The technologies that ITEC-Ohio helps develop will quickly become available to the general public including university faculty and students, the health care industry, business community, media outlets, entertainment industry, public libraries and our homes.

"The development of Internet2 and its multiple sources of potential benefits, commencing right here in Ohio, should be viewed as a golden opportunity to explore and then cultivate high-tech career opportunities for the new century," said Ohio Board of regents Chancellor Roderick G. W. Chu. "In many respects, Ohio has long followed the lead of other states and regions of the nation in terms of technology advancements. It is now a pleasure for the Ohio Board of Regents to participate with a strong consortium of Ohio organizations as we take a leading position on the national if not international spectrum of technological sophistication," Chu said.

"There is no doubt that technology is the driving force behind the nation's new economy. Projects such as Abilene will help Ohio prepare for the future," said Glenn Brown, Governor Taft's Science and Technology Advisor.

Internet2 is a project of UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development), which provides leadership and direction for advanced networking development, technology transfer and collaborative activities in the United States. With corporate and government backing, networks around the world will soon link up with Internet2, sharing research and turning knowledge into commercial products. Dozens of major corporations, including Qwest, Cisco, Nortel, IBM and others are providing more than $500 million in equipment, infrastructure and other resources for the I2 network. As new technologies are developed on Internet2, the corporate community will move them into the public sector where they will improve education, business, health, industry and entertainment.